Step 6: Flashlights

Step 7: Barbeque

In town the bylaws don’t allow me to install a wood burning stove so I have a propane barbeque with a stove burner and extra tanks for cooking when th...

Dufferin County where I live is home to one of the largest industrial wind farms in Canada, with more turbines planned, proposed and approved. But even the nearby wind turbines don’t guarantee we don’t have blackouts in bad weather.

Step 1: Backup Systems

Many of the farms near my home have wind turbines and solar panels as well as three point hitch generators the good thing about the solar panels and wind turbines is the local utilities buys the excess hydro from these systems. The down side of depending on one system no wind or not enough wind and you have no power, and the solar panels don’t generate power if it is night or overcast. That’s why multi stage systems work best as well as these systems are just too large to hang off the balcony of your condo.

Step 2: Coalman Generator

I live in town and the bylaws don’t allow me to install a windmill, large solar array, or a wood burning stove so I make due with other means of dealing with blackouts and other natural events. The size of a push mower this Coalman 3750 portable generator and two jerry cans of gas to run the refrigerator and freezer in the summer and the furnace in the winter. In the winter I can put the refrigerator and freezer outside in the cold. I could not build one for the $175.oo this one cost me. For the generator fuel, additive will make the gas last a year in storage.

Step 3: 400 Watt Inverter

This 400 watt power inverter is strong enough to run my satellite and TV, it cost me $25.oo easier and cheaper to buy than to build. This can be connected to a car battery, a boat deep charge battery, an ATV, or a riding lawnmower.

Step 4: Solar Cells

Other than the solar array I built the other 12 volt 2 watt cost me $20.oo for the pair. I use these to charge batteries for power packs.

Since I lost my eyesight I haven’t been able to get work so I go out with my friend Georg Squirrel every day and bag newspapers just to get out of the house. (Since I am blind I don’t need a light to see what I am doing and he can drive before sunup.)

A couple weeks ago we had an ice storm which is unusual this time of the year.

I come home 6:00 am no hydro.

Not a problem I start the coal man and the barby.

I make myself a coffee.

Now my neighbor a single mother with three wee ones, I go over and ask if the kids would like a hot breakfast.

If I get you right, up until I lost my eye sight and other than work I would say I lived 98% off the grid. heated with wood and cooked with wood, hunted and gathered food as well as raised livestock and crops. Now that I live in town Im more of a prepper, gatherer and fisherman.

You are very well prepared, but need a solar cooker too. In main winter I roasted meat, sausage and hamburgers, boiled noddles and made compote. The only requirement is SUN. You could cook marmalade and candy, too, at zero fuel cost.

WOW, you are REALLY northern. But If I were you, do a test. A mirrored surface of 1 m2 is effective here in midwinter, maybe you need 1.20 m2 or something. My "parable" was an arrangement of mirrors that converged sunlight into food. If you can use solar cooking occasionally, that day you can cook free and environmentally.

Nice Dish, they do work on occasion and if I was still on the farm I would build one, but in town if it is not chained down kiss it good bye. You can see the cable and lock in the photo of my Coalman generator and I don’t have a lot of space.

Pure sine wave inverters will work everything. Can cost twice as much as modified sine wave inverters, small inverters start at $100 for a 150 watt. Are less surge tolerant, (1000 watts run 1200 watts surge) Some pure sine wave inverters are as little as 60 to 80% efficient, (1400 watts in 1000 watts out)

Modified sine wave inverters don’t work everything. Some induction motors and some electronics won’t work everything else works fine. Cost half the price of pure sine wave inverters, small inverters start at $15 for a 75 watt. More tolerant to power surges, (1000 watts run 2000 watts surge) Can be as high as 90 to 98% efficient, (1002 watts in 1000 watts out)

To be more specific almost all power tools and vacuums are made with AC/DC motors, they will run on batteries or any inverter output some just not as efficiently as others. Many single phase induction motors will work with modified sine wave inverters many two phase and three phase induction motors won’t. Lights and heating elements generally don’t care which, your electric stove as an example. Electronics are a throw of the dice.

One thing you can do is get a 500 watt modified sine wave inverter for as little as $30. Depending on how modern your house contents are this should run almost everything in your house that does not cook and try them one at a time. Then you will know what needs a pure sine wave and what does not, buy for what you need. If you need 10000 watts to run your home 5000 watts pure sine wave and 5000 modified sine buy that. If you need 3000 watts pure sine wave and 6000 watts modified sine wave buy that. This way you get the best working for the best price and the best efficiency.

After working with Inverters buying is cheaper and easier than building if you don’t have a mountain of cheap parts.

Cheap inverters

Under 5000 watts mixed systems cost the same as pure sine wave systems, so if you must have a pure sine wave inverter, go all pure sine wave inverter. If you don’t need pure sine wave go modified sine wave inverter, it costs less, is more efficient, and is more surges tolerant.

About This Instructable

Bio:I am a photographer, a tinker, an electronics technology engineer, and author; I write short stories and poetry for the love of writing. I started writing poetry in high school over thirty years ago w...read more »